


Unbreakable Chains

by Taliax



Series: 100 Eternal Moments [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Family, Friendship, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Some Canon, some AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2018-02-27 20:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2705612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taliax/pseuds/Taliax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Contrary to his own belief, Vanitas wasn't completely incapable of making friends.  Platonic Vanitas/whoever for set 5 of Raberba girl's "Other Kinds of Love" challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Diaper

**Author's Note:**

> This is the set I’ve been looking forward to the most, where I finally get to do a challenge about Vanitas! :D Instead of having a set pairing/trio, each drabble will have Vanitas paired up with whoever I feel like, usually Aqua, Ven, or Xion probably. There may also be crossovers here and there since I have this unbreakable habit of platonically shipping Van with ponies… *XD/sweatdrop*

“I am _not_ changing that brat’s diaper,” Vanitas informed his mother.

“Oh, is that so?”  She raised a thin blue eyebrow, trying not to smile at her eight-year-old son.

“Uh-huh.”  Vanitas glared at the blond baby boy in his mother’s arms.  “He’s smelly and gross and drools all over everything.  And he’ll probably pee on me.”

“Well I guess you don’t want Flood anymore, then.  After all, he pees in his cage and you clean it out.  That must be too gross for you to handle.”  She made like she was going to his room.

“No!”  Vanitas reached out, clutching fistfuls of his mom’s shirt.  “Leave Flood alone!”

Aqua smiled, turning back to face him.  “You take care of Flood because you love him, right?”

 “…No, I take care of him ‘cause he’s my minion.  Love’s mushy and gross.”  The black-haired boy frowned and looked away.  You couldn’t love your minions.  It made them have too much self-esteem, and then they’d stab you in the back.  Not that Flood would ever do that to him, because the blue hamster was the best minion in the worlds.

Aqua put on a look of hurt.  “So you don’t even love me?  Or your father?”

Vanitas let go of his mom and turned away, crossing his arms, and mumbled something under his breath.

“What was that, young man?”  Aqua asked sternly, rocking her baby son in her arms when he started to fuss.

“I said I love you,” Vanitas grumpily replied, then winced when his brother let out a squeaky cry.  How could his mom love the little brat so much?  All he did was pee and poop and eat and cry, and she still thought he was the light of her universe.

“Oh.”  His mother’s face lightened again.  “I love you too, Van,” she said, appeasing him slightly, but that was ruined when she added, “And I love your father and your brother, too.”

“And Flood?”  He asked.  Flood was way cooler than the baby brat; it wasn’t fair to leave him out.  Aqua laughed.

“And Flood.  Just like you take care of Flood because you love him, I take care of you and Ven because I love both of you.  Now, you need to learn how to take care of your brother too.”

Vanitas’s face instantly hardened back into a scowl.  “I don’t need to.  I don’t love him.”

His mother put on her ‘That was _Too Far’_ face.  “Vanitas, he is your brother, and you will learn to love him.  Just like you’re going to learn how to change a diaper.”

She knelt down and laid the fussing Ventus on a changing mat that she had previously spread over the floor.  Vanitas took the chance to try and sneak back to his room, but she saw him with what could only be eyes in the back of her head.

“Vanitas Chi Fair, get back here _this instant,”_ she ordered, freezing him in his tracks.  He sulked back, plopped down next to his mother, and hunched his shoulders.

“Babies are stupid,” he muttered.

“Believe it or not, you were a baby too once,” his mother informed him while undoing Ventus’s diaper.  Vanitas chose the _not_ option.  (At least, if he _was_ a baby, he hadn’t been nearly so slobbery and smelly as his brother.)  “I had to do the same things for you that I do for Ven, and someday you’ll take care of your children the same way.”

Vanitas made a disgusted face.  “Eww, I don’t want to have kids.”

“Your future wife might change your mind,” his mom teased lightly.

“Pfft, I don’t want to get married, either.  Girls have cooties.”

Aqua laughed, leaning over to kiss her grumpy, adorable son’s forehead.  “I hope you think that for a long time, Van.  Now could you please pass me a baby wipe?”

He made another disgusted face as Aqua cleaned her younger son’s bottom and clothed it with a fresh diaper.

“See, that didn’t look so hard now, did it?”  Aqua asked.

Vanitas’s only reply was several loud gagging sounds.


	2. Mailbox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas may be one to leave without saying goodbye, but Cinderella isn't one to let a new friend leave without thanking him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This pairing is utterly crack, even platonic. XD I wish I could remember how I came up with this plunny…

The mailbox was shaking.

As far as Vanitas knew, mailboxes weren’t supposed to shake.  Not that he knew a great deal about mailboxes, but it just didn’t seem like a useful thing for one to do.  Wondering if one of his less intelligent Unversed had trapped itself inside the blue letter depository, Vanitas opened it.

It spit a piece of paper out at him, and his instinctive reaction was to cleave the mailbox in two, which he did effortlessly with his keyblade.  The confused citizens of Disney Town in the vicinity looked as if they wanted to question his spontaneous action, but one glare through his dark mask sent them back to a comfortable distance.  Left in peace, Vanitas examined the paper in his hand.

 _To Van, from Cinderella,_ the envelope said.  It took a long moment for the name to register, and even then it didn’t make sense.  Hadn’t he run into her in the Castle of Dreams world?

Confused but intrigued in spite of… everything, Vanitas corridored to a world with more privacy to read his letter.  The Keyblade Graveyard was obviously not an option, not with Xehanort or even Braig (actually, more often Braig) around to look over his shoulder.  The second world that came to mind was Neverland, specifically the skull-shaped rock place.

Except for the lull of waves on stone and the annoying cries of seagulls fighting over fish, all was quiet.  After shooting Dark Blizzaga at the squabbling seagulls, it was even peaceful.  If Vanitas could ever feel at peace, that was.  Though, he hadn’t felt his usual level of internal discomfort that one day with Cinderella…

XXX

Was he out of the dark corridor?  He didn’t feel the bone-deep chill of darkness anymore, but he couldn’t see more than a foot in front of his face.

“Stupid mask…”  It kept others from seeing his face, but that was hardly useful if he couldn’t see _their_ faces.  He yanked his helmet off and tossed it on the ground, but then he realized a bigger problem.

He choked on the cloud of dust that swirled up where his helmet hit the creaky wooden floor.  Hacking and coughing, he struggled to catch his breath.

“What kind of – * _HACK*_ – stupid world did that – * _COUGH_ *- old coot send me to this time?”

When the dust cleared and his eyes finally adjusted to the dim light, he could see that he was in some place where antiques went to die.  There was an old china cabinet with both door hanging at crooked angles; a piano that, when he pressed a key, emitted the most discordant sound he’d ever hear; and a shattered full-body mirror that caught dusty fragments of his reflection.

He approached the mirror and wiped off a thick layer of dust, revealing his golden eyes staring back at him.  Frowning, he ruffled his helmet-flattened hair into an acceptably spiky configuration and flashed a smirk before turning away.

“Wonder why he wants extra darkness in a dump like this…”  With a shrug and a flick of his wrist he called a dozen Hareraisers into existence.  Their fluffy ears would make good dustrags, and if he was going to spread darkness and negativity anyway, he might as well not choke on dust while he was doing it.

“Get cleaning, minions,” he ordered.  Meanwhile, he began searching for the exit to this room, which was much easier said than done.  Towering pieces of dilapidated furniture created a labyrinthine path that wound to who knew where.  There were no windows that he could see, and he couldn’t use Fire magic for light without igniting the whole place.

The Hareraisers didn’t do a half-bad job, surprisingly.  They looked like a horde of literal dust bunnies before they were even close to finishing, so he had to make new ones about every five minutes, but it was still pretty effective.  He could breathe much more easily now, and there wasn’t as much dust obscuring his vision.

“Now if I can just find a way out of here…”  He jumped onto a now-clean wooden dresser to get a better view, but it was a creaking noise followed by a voice that drew his attention.

“Oh?”  It was a girl with a broom, and she was looking straight at him.  Too late he realized he’d abandoned his helmet further back in the maze of furniture.  “Who are you?”

“I…”  He was so vulnerable, no tinted shield between them.  He had half a mind to run away from this perfectly harmless girl, and he was painfully aware of every conflicted emotion etched out on his face.  _No one_ was supposed to see his face.

“Oh, where are my manners? My name is Cinderella.”  She curtsied politely.  He blinked.  No one was ever polite to him.  And she especially shouldn’t be, not when he practically broke into her house.

“I’m… Van…” He stopped himself before finishing his name.  He never told anyone his name before… actually, he hadn’t even _spoken_ to anyone, except for his Unversed and Xehnaort and Ventus and Ventus’s idiot friends, and they hardly counted.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Van.”  She smiled.  Vanitas hated smiles, and he decided he hated being called Van, too.  Why was he letting this Cinderella address him, anyway?  He had darkness to spread.  She’d shown him the door; he should kill her and move on.

But he didn’t.  He stood there stupidly on top of the dresser until Cinderella finally asked, “So, um, Van, could you please explain what you are doing in this attic?”

“Cleaning,” he said easily.  It wasn’t even entirely a lie.  But why was he still here, talking to her?

She laughed joyously, and he knew why he didn’t attack her, or run, or doing anything remotely sensible:  this was his first encounter with anyone who wasn’t immediately terrified of, angry with, or repulsed by him.  And though it stabbed his pride to admit it, the positive attention felt… well, it didn’t feel bad.

“Wonderful!  Did my stepmother hire you?  Lady Tremaine?”  Cinderella’s eyes sparkled with so much light it almost made him sick.  “Oh, it’s been so long since I had any help… aside from the mice and birds, but there’s only so much they can do.”

Mice?  Birds?  Did this Cinderella have control over them the same way Vanitas controlled the Unversed?  Maybe she wasn’t as stupid or weak as he’d assumed, even if she reeked of light.

“Yeah, let’s go with that,” he agreed to her cover story, justifying it with the fact that he could spread darkness a lot more easily if she didn’t try to kick him out now.  It was dumb reasoning, and he knew it, but it wasn’t hurting anything..

Suddenly one of his Hareraisers hopped up onto the dresser, wearing a coating of dust like it was a fuzzy sweater and slapping him with its floppy ears.

“Yeah, I got it, dust bunny.”  Vanitas rolled his eyes and cast a dexterous blast of Aero magic that sucked the dust off the Hareraiser, swirled it into a mini-tornado, and deposited it in a neat pile at Cinderella’s feet.

She blinked, shocked speechless.  “What… How…?”

He smirked smugly.  “You ever heard of magic?”

“Yes, but… you’re not a witch or a fairy…”

 _“Obviously.”_ He scowled.  “They’re not the only ones that have magic.  I’m a…”  Huh.  What did he call himself?  No one had ever asked.  “…I’m awesome,” he finally decided.

She giggled at that.  “And who is your friend?”

“I don’t have—”  Oh.  She was looking at the Hareraiser, who was looking at him with big, red eyes like it was begging for a belly rub.  “That’s just a Hareraiser.  They’re pretty dumb.”

Cinderella frowned.  Vanitas decided that he hated that more than when she smiled.

“I mean, they’re good at cleaning.  They just need a lot of attention.”

“ _All_ animals need attention.  Come here, little one… Don’t be afraid…”

It looked to Vanitas for permission, and when he nodded, it flung itself off the dresser and glomped Cinderella’s shoe.  _Traitor._

“Aww, you’re so sweet,” Cinderalla cooed.  “I should make an outfit for you…”

His Unversed being shoved into dresses was the last thing he wanted, below Firaga-ing himself in the face.

“Aren’t we supposed to be cleaning?”  Vanitas grumbled.

“Oh!”  She stopped scratching the Hareraiser’s ears and stared at the broom in her hand like a recovering amnesiac.  “I have to hurry, or I won’t be done in time to go to the Royal Ball tonight!  I was worried I might not make it, since I don’t have a dress yet, but I can worry about that when we’re done.  I know we’ll finish in time with you helping me, Van.”

That smile; such blind trust.  Maybe she was an idiot.  But he’d never had someone’s trust to betray, such a heavy invisible weight that for some reason he didn’t want off of his shoulders.  Maybe it was all a scheme; she was manipulating his emotions the same way she manipulated his Hareraiser and her Mice and Birds.  If his will were any weaker he would’ve believed it, but he was _way_ above being manipulated.

“Let’s just get cleaning.”  He was wasting a whole day of darkness for this, so she’d better make it worth it.

While she made careful brushstrokes in the dust with her broom, he cast more Aero magic in the form of mini-tornadoes.  They took more focus than he wanted to expend, though; it was easier to leave it to the Hareraisers.  He just wanted to talk to Cinderella.

She sang while she worked, a sweet melody that sounded like ice cream tasted, even though the words were dully repetitive.

_“Sing sweet nightingale, sing sweet nightingale, ah-ah-ah-ah-ah…”_

“How do you sing like that?” Vanitas asked.

“Oh, it’s easy, really.”  Cinderella blushed, or at least he thought she did.  It was hard to tell in the dim light.  “But I’m not sure how to explain it…”

Vanitas shrugged.  “Whatever.”  It wasn’t like he really wanted to learn how to sing; he just wanted her attention.  “So why are we cleaning all this junk, anyway?”

“It’s one of the chores Stepmother needs me to do before I can go to the Ball.”  She sighed a girly sigh.

She mentioned a Ball earlier.  _What’s the big deal about a stupid ball?  It’s probably not even the bouncy kind._

“Why do you want to go to this ‘Ball’ thing?”

“It’s a dance being held in the Castle.”  She smiled dreamily.  “I’ve seen that Castle out my window most of my life, but I’ve never been there.  And there’s the chance that I may meet some new friends, maybe even a… special friend…”  She blushed.  Vanitas had no clue what she was talking about.  “I haven’t made a human friend since… I can’t even remember.  Well, today I met.”  A smile brightens her face.  “Thank you for being here, Van.”

Wait, she wasn’t implying he was her _friend,_ was she?  No.  Wimps like Ventus made friends.  Vanitas was a heart of pure darkness.  This had gone too far.

“Yeah, well, I’m not exactly the kind of guy you want as a friend,” he found himself saying as he climbed an old bookshelf and leapt from the other side, landing catlike on the creaky ground.  She followed him through a slim gap between the shelves and an old piano.

“What do you mean?”  He saw her confused blink in his peripheral vision.  “You’re caring, hardworking, even magical.  And you have the loveliest eyes.”

“Huh?”  He spun around, completely bewildered.  Out of all the comments he could have made, though, he chose, “My _eyes?”_

“Of course.”  She smiled.  “I’ve only seen that color in my father’s heirlooms.  Where do you come from, Van?”

If that last comment took by surprise, the question practically knocked him over.

His gaze hardened; he caught a glimpse of himself in the same broken mirror he entered by.  There was his helmet lying hollow on the floor.  They had cleaned their way all the way back here.

“I come from someplace you should never go.”

Scooping up his helmet and shoving it over his spiky hair, he waved his arm to open a dark corridor.

“Wait!”  She called as he started towards it.  “Where are you going?”

“Back to where I came from.”

“Will you come back?”  Her blue eyes were pretty too, he realized, but that was because there was a soul behind them.  His gold eyes held no soul.

“No,” he forced the word out.  “No, I won’t.”

XXX

_Dear Van,_

_I’m sorry if I offended you in any way.  It wasn’t my place to pry.  I would sincerely like to see you again, but I understand if you don’t feel the same.  Still, I hope my Fairy Godmother finds a way to send this letter to you._

_I still have to thank you, Van, for helping me clean the attic.  It may have been a simple thing for you and your magic, but without you I could never have finished, and dress or no dress, I would never have made it to the Ball._

_You most likely don’t want to bothered with the details of my life, but I want you to know that I am happy, and I will not forget you, even if I never see you again.  You were my friend when I needed one most._

_You are still my friend, if you would like to be._

_Sincerely,_

_Cinderella_

XXX

Vanitas shook his head slowly, unable to move anything else.  All he had wanted was to forget her, the one person who showed him what kindness felt like.  And doomed him to an even greater depth of misery, now that he knew there was a different way to feel.

 _You could go back,_ he thought to himself.  _One corridor, and you could see her…_

And have to rip himself away again?  What was he, a masochist?

He summoned an orb of Fire in his palm, watched it slowly eat Cinderella’s neat handwriting until it was nothing more than dark ask, blowing out towards the sea.

He did not need a friend.  He couldn't afford to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize if Van is OOC anywhere in this; it’s hard to make him be even semi-nice to anyone without adjusting his character. ^^;  
> Lol, I realized the name for this pairing would be VanElla, or Vanilla. XD XD And go figure, I end up writing this before I manage to come up with any Terella, a pairing I actually like for something besides being random crack. XD  
> I know Cinderalla falls in romantic love before she sent the letter, but since most of this story was before that, I hope that doesn’t count…? orz


	3. Read

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The little kid might be smart enough to read, but Vanitas wished he'd been smart enough not to mess with his Prize Pods.

By default Vanitas figured all little kids were idiots, but this particular little kid had to be especially idiotic.  The first time Vanitas saw him, he was just standing in one of Radiant Garden’s streets, staring quizzically at a twitching cluster of Floods.  Some old scientist with brittle blond hair had scolded the boy and dragged him away before the Floods had a chance to tear him apart.  The second time the boy had perched on a ledge overlooking the Fountain Court – how he got up there, Vanitas had no idea – and had scribbled in a leather-bound notebook as he watched several Tank Topplers down below.  The third time – this time – he was wading in the shallows below the Fountains, neck craned up at the glowing purple Prize Pods floating above his head.

_Nobody_ was supposed to find his Prize Pods.

Vanitas was about to drop from the ledge above, but something stopped him:  the Prize Pods weren’t fleeing.  He had specifically designed his treat-producing Unversed to flee after a certain amount of time in the presence of a living creature, so that Vanitas himself would have enough time to harvest their desserts, but no one else would.  But these Prize Pods were just floating contentedly, even when the slate-haired boy reached up to touch their spherical bodies.  The particular Pod he touched dropped a Nebula Nectar into his hand.

Vanitas couldn’t just kill him now.  He had to know what this idiotic kid could do to make his Unversed act so… _tame._

He dropped from the ledge, landing in the shallows with a splash.  The boy didn’t seem to notice.

“Hey,” Vanitas called, hoping to draw his attention.  When all the kid did was collect a couple of Rocket Sodas, Vanitas called louder, “Hey, idiot.  I’m talking to you.”

He finally turned around, bearing a _‘What do you want, idiot?’_ expression.  Vanitas would know.  He was quite used to making it himself.

“Get your hands off my Prize Pods,” he ordered.  At the sound of their master’s voice, said Prize Pods began to flutter frantically, some dropping a few extra treats before vanishing into thin air.  “Great, there goes my ice cream…”

The little boy crossed his arms, shooting Vanitas a glare through his long bangs.  Who did the imp think he was, staring down a scary masked stranger?  Didn’t his parents teach him better?  And parents probably wouldn’t let their kid chase after monsters, even ones that gave them candy.  Not that Vanitas knew much about parents.

“Look, idiot.”  Vanitas summoned his keyblade.  “I could kill you right now.”

The kid didn’t look impressed.  In fact, he might have even raised an eyebrow; it was hard to tell under his hair.

Vanitas laughed.  “What are you going to do, stare me to death?”

The boy shrugged.

“Are you mute or something?”

Another shrug.

“Well you better tell me something about what you did to my Prize Pods, or I’m going to kill you.”

Despite Vanitas’s threat, the boy reached into the pocket of his white lab coat with no urgency and pulled out a leather-bound notebook.  Vanitas briefly glimpsed his Unversed symbol etched into the cover before the boy flipped to a page with a well-drawn diagram of a Prize Pod.

“What is it?”  Vanitas asked.

The boy rolled his eyes as if to say, _‘You can read, can’t you?’_

Rolling his eyes in return – not that the boy could see – Vanitas snatched the notebook.  Unfortunately he couldn’t read the tiny handwriting through the dark tint of his mask.  What did he care if some kid saw his face, anyway?  After dissolving his mask, he could read the notes the boy had kept:

_‘These creatures are different from the others.  They smell sweet.  They don’t like it when that red-haired boy chases them.  They only appear in the corner by the Fountains, behind the stairs.  Through many experiments, I have observed that they are friendly if I approach them slowly and give them something sweet.  They drop treats when I pet them.  I have learned how to mix them together to create different flavors of ice cream.’_

“…You write too fancy for a kid,” Vanitas said, glancing up at the boy.  Or down.  He was really short.  It made Vanitas feel tall for once.  “What’s your name?”

Taking the book back, he flipped to a blank page, took a pencil from his pocket and wrote, _‘My name is Ienzo.’_

“Alright, Een-zo,” Vanitas tried to pronounce, “you’re not as dumb a kid as you look.  So how about you making me some ice cream?”

After considering a moment, Ienzo wrote, _‘As long as you tell me the names of these creatures.’_

Eh, it was easier than threatening him. 

“Deal.”


	4. Pencil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It wasn't his fault she was the most interesting thing in math class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random high school AU.

He couldn’t figure it out.  Days turned into weeks turned into months of him watching her pencil kiss the paper, watching beautiful pictures flow out like magic.  Math class after math class after math class.  Other students learned how to factor polynomials.  She built a clocktower from grey graphite lines.  Other students learned rational functions.  She breathed life into a paper flower.  Other students learned sine, cosine, and tangent.  She sketched three figures in darkly-shaded coats that were so realistic, he swore he could hear their laughter.

Vanitas dreaded the day his teacher – what was his name? – would rearrange the seating chart and move him away from Naminé.  Or the day she decided to actually pay attention in class.  Or the day she noticed him watching her… but he needed her to notice him.  He needed to ask her something.

It wasn’t until one day when she was absently tapping her pencil’s eraser against the desk that he got his chance.  The pencil bounced wrong and flew off the side of her desk, rolling under Vanitas’s chair.  As the teacher graded papers behind his desk  and Naminé searched quietly for the wayward pencil, he picked it up and tapped her on the shoulder.  She jumped so badly her knee hit the underside of her desk.

“Didn’t think I was _that_ scary,” Vanitas remarked, offering her back her pencil and hiding his dismay.

“Oh.  Um, thank you…?”

“Vanitas.”  She probably didn’t even know he existed, much less his name.

“I’m Naminé,” she whispered back with a small, probably forced smile.

“I know,” he replied, then mentally kicked himself.  That’s not how you should answer when someone introduced herself, right?  It wasn’t like many people ever talked to him…  “How do you do it?”  He asked his question to change the subject.  If he was going to do it it might as well be now, anyway, while Ven’s snoring covered their conversation.

“Do what?”  Naminé asked.

“Draw things that look so real.”  He pointed to the corner of her worksheet, where waves washed over a seashell.

She blushed so brightly, Vanitas would’ve thought it was painted on if he didn’t know any better.  “…You notice?”

It was probably weird, but he was oblivious as usual.  When she saw the coast was clear, she replied, “I don’t know… it’s just something I do.  I feel like I always have…”

Vanitas looked from her hands, pale, thin fingers absently twirling a pencil – artist’s hands – to his own hands that had never created anything, unless he counted that purple bruise on Terra’s jaw last year.  He’d thought…  he wasn’t sure what he thought.  That she would teach him?  That something beautiful could come from his anger-ruled hands?

He clenched his fists, fingernails digging into his palms.  _Don’t get mad at her.  It’s not her fault you’re a failure.  It’s not her fault all you can think about is hurting people, except not now because I’m thinking about her…_

“Draw me,” he said suddenly.

“What?”  She asked.

“You heard me.  I want you to draw me.”

“Um… okay,” she agreed nervously.

It took three days, at the end of which Vanitas’s patience was even more nonexistent than before.  The whole time she wouldn’t let him look at her sketchbook, but she kept stealing glances at him between elegant strokes of her pencil.

“I think it’s done,” Naminé whispered.  _Finally._

“Show me.”

She slid the sketchbook onto his desk.  He didn’t know what to think.

It was him, but it wasn’t.  The real him didn’t smile.  The real him had never been to the beach.  And the real him didn’t have any friends.  But through the window of her greyscale drawing, he saw himself smiling as he relaxed in the tide with Naminé.

“It might not be exactly what you pictured… I’m sorry…”

“Shut up.  It’s perfect.”

It was difficult to move his eyes from the artwork, but the artist was just as beautiful.  And then, with less difficulty than he expected, he smiled.


	5. Cake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas tries to give his big sister Aqua a birthday present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From the "Breaking the Ice" universe; Vanitas is about 7, Xion's 13, Saïx's 14, and Aqua's turning 15 (her birthday is December 2, in case anyone was wondering).

I hate being short. Everyone else is so tall, and they can reach stuff like the flour and sugar and everything else up high in the cabinets. It's not _fair;_ I already cracked the eggs in the big mixing bowl and dug out all the eggshell bits, and I even washed my hands afterwards like Aqua always tells me to, but it won't matter if I don't have all the other cake ingredients to mix with them. Unless I just make Aqua eggs for her birthday, but plain eggs are gross.

"Stupid tall people… except Aqua, she's tall but not stupid…" I drag one of those tall counter chairs over to the cabinet, but its metal legs make a loud _screech_ on the tile. I can't let it wake up Aqua or anyone else; it'll ruin the surprise. "Shut up, chair."

I try to pick it up. It's not too heavy for me. It's just big and stupid and I almost trip over it on my way to the cabinet.

"Forget it." I leave the chair in the middle of the kitchen and climb on top of the counter, bracing my palms on it and pushing myself up until I can drag my knees up too. Ha, I don't even need a dumb tall chair, _or_ a dumb tall person. The cabinet's still kind of high from the counter, since it's above the microwave too, but when I stretch on my tip-toes I can open it and grab the bag of flour. Saïx is stupid for putting it all the way up here.

"When I take over the world, I'm gonna make all the tall people put everything on the ground, and they'll have to bend over to get stuff and I'll be able to reach everything." I smirk.

The flour's heavier than I thought. I can still carry it… just set it on the counter, then I can climb down and—

" _Vanitas."_

I spin around at the voice – the flour's still heavy –

"Go away, I'm—ack!"

Stupid slippery counter, stupid heavy flour, stupid Saïx who put it up there and catches me now when I'm falling. Ugh. He stares at me with his eyes that are really yellow and glowy in the dark, like mine. But mine aren't scary like his are, looming over me.

"Would you rather I have let you fall and give yourself a concussion?" Saïx asks.

"…Maybe." I don't know exactly what a concussion is, but I'm not going to ask.

He drops me on the ground, but I turn and land on top of the flour, so it doesn't hurt much. There is a big puff of white powder on the ground now, though.

"You will be cleaning this up," Saïx says boredly, like he doesn't really care, only I know he does 'cause he came down here in the first place when he should be sleeping.

"Not until I finish Aqua's birthday cake," I tell him. He stares at the egg-filled mixing bowl, then at the flour under me.

"I should have known you would…" He sighs and pinches his nose. Why does he do that so much? "There's a smaller container of flour right there." He points to a shiny metal cylinder on the counter, by where the measuring cups are hanging. There's more flour right _there?_

"But you got this one out!" He did; I saw him just yesterday when he made waffles. I'm not stupid.

"Because this container was empty. However, I was courteous enough to refill it." He opens the latched lid on the round container; it's full of soft white powder.

"…Get the sugar and other stuff too." If he knows where the ingredients are, he might as well find them for me.

"And what would this 'other stuff' be?" Saïx asks.

"Sugar, duh."

"And?

"Milk, and vanilla, and… stuff…"

"Baking a cake is a much simpler task when one has a recipe." He pulls a book from the high shelf above the fridge and opens it to a dog-eared page. "How do you think she would like this one, Vanitas?"

The cake in the picture is pretty, with white icing (but we'd make it blue 'cause that's Aqua's favorite) and white pencil-shaving looking things sprinkled on top. I think it's coconut. Aqua likes coconut. But Saïx doesn't like Aqua as much as I do; why would he care?

"You forgot to get her a birthday present." I cross my arms. Saïx rolls his eyes.

"Do you not want my assistance? You can return to tossing together flour and 'other stuff' if you would like. Just clean up after yourself."

Why does Saïx have to be right? I wanted the cake to be my present to Aqua, not his. But if he can help me make a pretty one like that, one Aqua will like for sure…

"Fine. What stuff do we need?"

XXX

Ugh, why aren't you getting up, Aqua? It's a Saturday, but she usually gets up early and trains with Dad. Maybe she's not 'cause it's her birthday, but she still needs to get up; her cake's gonna get cold. I almost fall asleep at the bottom of the stairs waiting on her since Saïx wouldn't let me wait outside her bedroom.

The sound of someone coming down wakes me up, but it's just Xion.

"You look happy to see me," she teases when I frown at her. I like Xion a lot, but I was hoping for Aqua.

"It's Aqua's birthday. I made her a cake," I tell her, dragging her towards the kitchen where Saïx is eating a bagel. The finished coconut cake with fifteen candles is cooling on the counter. "See?"

"Vani, you made this all by yourself?" Xion asks, clearly impressed by how awesome it is.

"…Saïx helped a little," I admit. I think my big brother smiles, but it's hard to tell when he's eating.

"D'aww, that was sweet of him." Xion grins, and Saïx grunts.

"It was either that or let him destroy the kitchen, which I doubt Aqua would have enjoyed waking up to."

"Hey, I wasn't destroying – Aqua!"

She walks into the kitchen, dressed all pretty – so _that's_ what took her so long – and I run up and jump on her.

"Happy birthday Aqua!" Hah, I got to say it before Saïx or Xion did. They echo a half-second too late.

"Thank you, Van." She smiles, hugging me back before thanking Saïx and Xion too. "Where is-?"

"I made you a cake! Look!"

She stares at the blue coconut cake, and I stare at her. Does she like it? She likes it, right?

"That's beautiful, Van." She smiles wider. "It was very kind of you to make it for me. It must have taken a lot of work."

Saïx keeps silently eating his bagel. Doesn't he want to tell her he made it too?

"…I didn't make it all by myself. Saïx helped too," I tell her. "Saïx is a good helper. He can reach all the tall stuff."

Aqua laughs. "I bet he can."

"I can hear you," Saïx mumbles.

"I know," I say. "I was letting you. Can we eat cake now?"

"We better save it for later," Aqua says. "At least until after breakfast. Otherwise we'll get sick."

"Aww…" I want her to tell me it tastes good now.

Aqua glances around the kitchen. "Where is Father?"

"He will be back soon," Saïx answers. "He is in the process of picking up important packages."

Oh yeah. I overheard Dad talking to Terra and Ventus – the "packages" – last week. He's taking the three of them to Disney Town for the day. Maybe I can sneak along with them…

Aqua looks at Saïx like he's weird, which he is, but she doesn't ask. "Well, I guess we should eat breakfast, then."

Saïx holds up his bagel, giving her his best _"Obviously"_ look. He needs to be nicer.

"Then can we eat cake?"

Aqua smiles. "Yes, Van, then we can eat cake."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's fun writing from Van's POV, but it's kind of difficult because he's not really a reliable narrator. He even lies to himself.
> 
> Their father is Eraqus, by the way, for those of you who haven't read BtI.
> 
> Saïx did get Aqua a present besides the cake, for the record, that was just Vani jumping to conclusions and Saïx not bothering to argue.


	6. Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas wants nothing to do with the new Ventus-clone in Sora's heart. But maybe they're less different than he assumes.

“I don’t like him,” was the first thing Vanitas heard the Ventus-clone say.  Why there was suddenly another Ventus in Sora’s heart, he didn’t know, but it kind of ticked him off.  Why did Ventus get a clone and not him?  One Ventus was too many already.

“Join the club.”  Vanitas rolled his eyes.  Like _anyone_ liked him.  Not that he needed anyone to like him, but being dismissed after two seconds was still rather annoying.

“Ah, he’s not that bad,” the real Ventus – Vanitas could only tell them apart by their still-similar clothes – said.  “Roxas, this is Vanitas.  Vanitas, Roxas.”

The two boys stared at each other.  Roxas’s eyes seemed colder than Ventus’s, even though they were the exact same shade of blue.  It was kind of unnerving, that stare from someone who looked like his other half, like what he used to look like, but wasn’t.

“At least you’re not a talker,” Vanitas surprised himself by finding the one upside.

“What do you expect, a long, drawn-out backstory?”  Roxas asked back.

Vanitas shrugged, propping his feet up on the white table across from the white couch he was sitting on in the white void.  Sora’s heart liked white.  Personally, all the bright whiteness made him feel like he was incarcerated in an insane asylum – which wasn’t far from the truth.  “It’s what Ventus did.”

“My backstory wasn’t drawn-out,”  His other half protested with a slight pout.  Vanitas rolled his eyes.

“You told me your whole life story.  _Including_ the parts when we were one, so it was like you told me _my_ life story too.”  Which was actually very disconcerting, like finding out someone had stalked you your whole life.  Only from inside you.  Disconcerting.

Ventus plopped on the couch next to him.  “I was bored.  Youweren’t offering a lot of backstory yourself.”

“Whatever.  So what are _you_ stuck here for, Rockface?”

“It’s _Roxas.”_ Roxas glared again.  Maybe he wasn’t as much like Ventus as he looked.  “And I… don’t really know.”

Ventus scooted over to make room on the couch (squishing Vanitas in the process), and Roxas reluctantly sat down.

“Again, join the club,” Vanitas replied bluntly.

“You don’t know why you’re here either?”  Roxas asked, his hostility fading to curiosity.

“Sora took me into his heart when mine was broken,” Ventus explained, “but I don’t really know why, or who he even is.”

“He’s the boy in red,” Roxas answered, like that explained everything.  “And he has spiky hair that looks… like yours.”  He squinted at Vanitas.

“Wait, so I _do_ have a clone?”  Vanitas grinned smugly at his other half.  “And we’re inside of him, which makes him cooler than your clone, so hah.”

The insult seemed to fly over Roxas’s head.  “Well, his hair’s brown, not black.  And his eyes are blue instead of gold.  And he’s nicer.”

Vanitas crossed his arms.  “Hmph.  Stupid Sora… bet he’s just as light as everything else in this stupid place.  It’s _always_ light…”

“Light’s not bad,” Roxas replied before Ventus could.  “I think my element might have been light… or something… that was a lot of days ago.  Something happened.  I don’t really remember…”

“Figures.”  Vanitas snorted.  “But have you ever tried sleeping when it’s always light?  _Always?”_

Roxas’s eyebrows creased.  “Well… it’s always sunset in Twilight Town…”

Sunset?  How bright could that be?  Sora’s heart was like living inside of a lightbulb.  One that you couldn’t unscrew and never burnt out.

“Whatever.  Good luck getting any sleep for the rest of your life.”  Vanitas got up and headed for the other side of the void.

“You mean this is _it?”_ Roxas yelled to him.  “We’re stuck here – _forever?!”_

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Ventus tried to console him.  “You get used to it.”

Vanitas glanced back to see Roxas shove his look-a-like and run off in the opposite direction.  It wouldn’t matter – Sora’s heart was like a tiny sphere.  No matter where you ran, it always led back to the same –

  1. Vanitas and Roxas hit the ground after colliding.



“Huh?  But I—”

“It’s no use, idiot.”  Vanitas rubbed his head.  “Running only takes you in circles.”  He’d tried.  And tried again, because he was stubborn.  But it didn’t matter.

To his surprise, tears glistened in the other boy’s eyes.  Roxas didn’t even try to hide it.  Vanitas wasn’t sure he even realized he was crying.  “But I… all I wanted…” he wiped his eyes, “was to be my own person…”

The soft, shaking words pierced through the iron walls around Vanitas’s fragmented heart.  _My own person… not a pawn, or a half, but a whole…_

His face felt wet.  He rubbed it off with the back of his hand, thankful at least that Ventus hadn’t made it to them yet.  Maybe he could still keep some shred of dignity.  But dignity wasn’t the most important thing on his mind, because maybe, just maybe, there was finally someone like him here, even if that someone was made of light and not darkness.

Vanitas pulled Roxas to his feet, and then he looked his other half’s clone in those watering, light blue eyes.

“Join the club, kid.”


	7. Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas gets the best Christmas present ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place in the “Breaking the Ice” Universe.

“You mean… he’s _mine?_ All mine?”

Uncle Xehanort laughs.  His laugh sounds like a train murdering a herd of cats with asthma.  “All yours.  Your siblings would not appreciate his… unique abilities.”

“He has superpowers-?!”

“Hush, child!”  He shoves a hand over my mouth, but I don’t care.  In _my_ hands is the awesomest amazing cool Christmas present _ever,_ and he’s all _mine._ “You must keep him our secret.  You know how your father will react.”

My eyes get wide.  I shove his hand away with the hand that isn’t holding my new pet.  “Is Dad gonna make me get rid of him?”

“No.  Not if you succeed in smuggling him to your home.  Your father will be forced to allot it; I will not take him back.”  He’s got this weird gleam in his yellow eyes.  We all know he’s crazy, but I don’t care.  “Keep him hidden until you return home.”

He never says goodbye, he just hunches off to some other corner of the old house.  Whatever, now I get to be all by myself in the dusty guest room – one of like, a hundred dusty rooms here – with my new pet.

“Ow!” I uncurl my hand.  He _bit_ me!  “What was that for?!”

_“Because you were squeezing me, idiot.”_

Where did that come from?  It was in my head, like I thought it, but I didn’t.  I’m not an idiot.

_“I’m right here!  Come on, new Boss, get with the program.”_

“Wha—you can _talk?!”_

_“Duh.”_ The blue hamster paces around my palm, sniffing.  _“You smell better than Hay Snort.  You will be a good Boss.”_

“I’m going to be the _best_ boss.  And you’re going to be the best minion.”  I grin so huge, my face kind of hurts.  Like my finger.  It’s still bleeding, but only a little.

_“Whatever you say, Boss.”_

“My name’s Vanitas,” I tell him, even though I like being called Boss.  He better know now so he doesn’t try to call me Vani later.“What’s your name?”

_“Hmm.  Hay Snort never told me.”_

“So you don’t know?”

He’s silent, sniffing the blood on my finger.  “Hmm… You’re blue.  Water’s blue.  Something about water?”

He snorts.  Guess he doesn’t care.  Maybe hamsters don’t usually have names.

“I can’t name you Aqua.  She’d be mad I named a hamster after her.  Plus you’re a boy.”  I think harder.  “Raindrop, no… Storm?  Nah, not that either… hey, what about Flood?”

_“Flood.  Sounds like blood.  Blood smells good.  Flood is a good name,”_ he decides.

“Awesome.”  I didn’t even think about that.  Flood’s dark and magic _and_ smart.  “Okay, Flood!  Let’s go mess with Xigbar and Xemnas!”

His tiny mouth looks like it’s smiling.  _“Sounds good to me, Boss.”_


	8. Green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas spies on the BbS trio around Christmas.

They really should’ve had curtains.  It was far too easy to stare through their frosty colored-glass windows, watch the three of them laugh and celebrate together as they decorated some weird evergreen tree.  Why did they have a tree inside, anyway?  Stupid.  Stringing lights and shiny glass balls and other knickknacks on it… what was the point?  Something told him he knew, a long time ago… but he had long since buried the memories of his past life.  It was the only way to function as a “normal” being of darkness.

“Pathetic,” he muttered to himself, clenching his fists and turning away from the window.  “Forget it.  Why do I need to know why they’re stupid?”

Because… if they were stupid, laughing and being happy together… well, maybe he wanted to be stupid, too.

“Shut up.”  He shook his head.  There was no reason to envy them.  They may be happy now, but one day… one day he’d forge the X-Blade, and _then_ the tables would turn.

Still, the trickling sounds of laughter pulled him back to the window.  Ventus was balanced on Terra’s shoulders now, reaching up to place a shining star on top of the green tree while aqua watched with a worried expression.

“Idiots.”

Sure enough, Ventus toppled off of Terra’s shoulders, landing with an _oof._ Vanitas laughed smugly at him, but it trailed off into silence when the three behind the window started laughing too.  He thought he was the only one who laughed at others’ pain; were those three capable of being sadistic too?

Terra and Ventus were about to try again, when Aqua made eye contact with Vanitas through the tinted window.  Uh-oh.

She darted towards the door, but Vanitas was quicker, scaling a nearby tree as easily as if it were a ladder, carefully enough to keep the snow balanced on its branches from plopping to the ground.  When Aqua emerged from a door, he was hidden above her line of sight.

“That’s funny…”  Aqua’s brow scrunched.  “I could’ve sworn I saw someone…”

“It’s Christmas Eve, Aqua,” Terra said, strolling outside too.  “Eraqus didn’t invite any visitors.  Who would be here?”

“I don’t know…”  She still didn’t look convinced.  “I was going to invite him inside, if there were someone here.  No one should be out in the cold on Christmas Eve.”

“No one?”  Vanitas muttered to himself.  Really, if they knew who he was, would they invite him into their home?  If they would, they were idiots.

But they weren’t idiots enough not to hear his mutter.  Aqua’s eyes locked on his hiding spot.

“Hello?”

Maybe she didn’t really know he was there, maybe he could just—

Terra shook the tree’s trunk.  Being as annoying muscular as he was, he had plenty of strength to shake Vanitas out, and he tumbled out with an undignified squeak.

“Ugh… idiot, I was just fine in that tree…”  He mumbled semi-coherently.

Terra’s brow furrowed.  “Hey, aren’t you Master Xehanort’s apprentice?”

Vanitas scowled, but it didn’t do much good through his dark mask.  “Yeah.  So what?”

“Sooo… aren’t you guys doing anything for Christmas?”

Normally he would be above asking an idiot like Terra anything, but his curiosity won over.  “What’s a Christmas?”

Aqua frowned sympathetically.  “Terra, go get him a mug of hot chocolate.  I’ll take care of him for now.”

As Terra cautiously retreated inside, Aqua helped him to his feet.  Or tried to, anyway; he didn’t need her help.  He stood on his own.

“It’s Vanitas, right?”  Aqua asked.

“…Yeah,” he mumbled.  “Why do you care?”

She looked taken aback.  “Because… because you’re a human being, and you’re alone.  Where’s Master Xehanort?”

Vanitas shrugged.  “Don’t know, don’t care.”  As long as his master didn’t directly call him, he was more than happy to be rid of the old man.

“W-well…”  This didn’t seem to be going the way she expected it too.  “We’ll help you get home in the morning.  In the meantime, why don’t you come inside?  It’s cold out here."

He guessed it was kind of cold, with his boots calf-deep in snow, but he didn’t think about it much.  It wasn’t like he normally had an “inside” to escape to.

“…Fine,” he agreed, stubbornness taking a backseat to the sudden desire for the warm air he felt wafting out from the door Terra had left open.

“Good.”  Aqua smiled, putting a comforting arm around his shoulders that he flinched away from at first… but it didn’t feel too bad, to he didn’t shove it away.  It was funny, really, a girl so light willingly embracing his darkness.  “So, you asked about Christmas…”

Yep, clearly the three keyblade apprentices were idiots.  They treated him like a guest, included him in their celebration, even when he grumpily resisted their kindness.

“Idiots…” he muttered when they were out of earshot, taking cookies out of the oven.  But he smiled.

They were idiots, but… somehow their idiotic happiness was contagious.


	9. Sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven’t read “Drop-Me-Not,” this will probably make zero sense.  Sorry.  This takes place sometime between chapter 14 and the end.  Why this was the first idea that came to mind at this prompt, I have no idea.  Also, I started this chapter forever ago, so the tone feels a little different from my more recent stuff.  The fact that this is first person probably contributes to that; I feel like I haven’t written in first person in forever and it was a little difficult.  But anyway, that’s enough of me rambling.
> 
> Oh, and this is also a crossover with “How to Train Your Dragon.”  Should probably meniton that.  Takes place sometime after the second movie.  So basically this is the most bizarre chapter.  Sorry.  (...Pun not intended.)

 

The match was almost finished.  I was ahead by – well, Ventus was keeping track of the score, yelling it out every time the ping-pong ball flew past Terra’s big head.  I was tuning my other half out, but I didn’t need his girly shouts to know that I was pwning Terra’s butt.

“Too slow,” I taunted with a smirk, to which he replied with a heavy scowl.

“C’mon, Terra!”  Ventus called energetically.  “You can still do it!  You just need, uh… eleven more points before Vani gets another one.”  He laced his fingers behind his head, smiling apologetically.

“Well I’m not giving up yet,” Terra replied, still determined to try and show me up.  Even though we were no longer in a competition over Aqua, it was still fun to get under the bigger guy’s skin.

“Good.  Giving up is for losers.”  I twirled my paddle.  “Then again, losing is for losers too.”

Growling slightly, Terra gave the ping-pong ball a hard _whack_ across the table.  My eyes locked on, my reflexes ready to send it shooting back—

“Vanitas.  I need to speak with you.”

Aqua’s voice froze my blood.  The ball bounced pitifully, _plick, plick, pliiick…_ before rolling off the table.  Terra and Ven hi-fived, but I barely paid attention.

I’d never heard that tone in Aqua’s voice before: quiet, low, charged with something that threatened to make an Unversed of Fear pop out of me.

“What?”  I spun around to face her, arms crossed.  She didn’t need to know how worried she’d suddenly made me.  “I’m about to kick Terra’s butt.”

Before Terra could protest that, Aqua said, “I think that you’ll agree that this is more important.”

More important that beating Terra?  There weren’t a lot of things that fell into that category.  The only one that came to mind was…

_“Vanilla!”_ I shoved past Aqua, running out of the game room.

“Vanitas forfeits!  Terra wins the match!”  Ventus announced behind me, his voice trailing off into nothing as I sprinted away, heading for the Lamp Garden.

“Vanitas!  Wait!”

I made it down two flights of stairs, down the hall, and through the thick wood door to the Lamp Garden.  When I arrived, two bright green eyes were there to greet me.

“Vanilla!”  I held out my arms as she playfully pounced on me.  “Thank the Void you’re—hey!  How many times to I have to tell you I’m not ice cream?  No licking!”

I shoved her face aside, and she rolled off of me.  It’s a good thing dragons had to be light enough to fly, or she would’ve crushed me months ago.

The door creaked as Aqua entered the garden.  “Vanitas…”  Her eyes focused sadly on Vanilla.

“What?”  I asked.  “She’s fine, Aqua.  Did you need me to clean up her poop or something?”

She sighed, sitting on a large tuft of grass that brushed up against an ancient-looking oil lamp, like something from Agrabah.  “It’s not that simple, Van…”

“Then tell me!”  I snapped, sick of the suspense.  “What’s going on?”

Slowly she pulled a folded piece of paper from the folds of her belt and held it out without meeting my eyes.  “Just read it.”

I snatched the paper and scanned it quickly, eyes darting across the page.  The first things I took note of were the two logos in gold and silver at the bottom of the page, like royal seals:  Disney and Square Enix.  I didn’t pay attention to the companies that “owned” us much, and for the most part, except for Nomura’s occasional visits and meetings, they left us alone.  So what did they suddenly want with me?

As it turned out, it wasn’t me they had a problem with.  It was Vanilla.

“What the—!” The Disney censors deleted my curse.  Oh yeah, that was the only other time they bothered to mess with us.  “Vanilla is a _copyright issue!?”_

My dragon stared over at me for a second, confused at my shout, before returning to clawing up the grass under her feet.

“She’s a Night Fury, Van,” Aqua explained bluntly.  “I don’t know how she even got here in the first place, but she belongs to DreamWorks.”

I stared with a _“so what?”_ expression.

“Disney’s biggest rivals!”  She burst out.  “Honestly, Vanitas, do you have no idea what this means?”

“Uh… that we did something awesome by stealing DreamWorks’ stuff?”  What was the big deal?  Shouldn’t Disney be rewarding me?

“No!”  She stood up, looming over me.  “It means by keeping her here, you could start an _intercompany war!_ If DreamWorks finds out you’ve got one of their Night Furies here – and sooner or later, it _will_ get leaked – they’ll send their strongest characters, their most ruthless lawyers.  They could _shut us down,_ Van!”  I flinched back from her furious outburst.

“Yeah, right.”  I rolled my eyes, trying to stay cool.  “I bet they don’t even know she’s missing.  And even if they did, we could take them.  We’re _keyblade masters,_ Aqua, what could they possibly do to us?”

Her blue eyes were like flecks of ice.  I hadn’t seen her look like that since we’d tried to kill each other back in _Birth by Sleep._

“They could shut down Kingdom Hearts III.”

The blood drained from my face.  A couple of Floods seeped out, which Vanilla happily pounced on, sending their negativity back to me.

While I was silent, Aqua took the liberty of explaining it all to me:  how DreamWorks could sue for copyright infringement, how even though practically no one could win a suit against Disney, it could go on for years.  And as long as it lasted, there was no chance of Kingdom Hearts III being finished, much less released.  And if KHIII took any longer, the hordes of angry fans would either attack – something we _weren’t_ strong enough to handle, keyblades or not – or even worse: leave the fandom.  It’s a little-known secret that most of our power comes from our fandom.  As characters, we never really die… until our fans stop caring if we live.

Okay, Aqua was right.  This was something to worry about.

“The Disney inspectors just came by yesterday night.  That means they’ve had at least twelve hours to formulate their report.  You _have_ to take Vanilla back before that report has a chance to get out.”

“Take… take her back?”  I said, more to myself that her, then shook my head.  “No.  She’s _my_ dragon, I don’t care what she is.  I can’t make her leave.”

Aqua’s glare could have sliced through solid steel.  “If you don’t, then I will.”

It was stupid—I hated myself—but water clung the edges of my eyes.   _You idiot, don’t let a stupid girl make you cry!  What are you, four years old?_

Instead of making fun of me, though, she softened, placing a hand on my shoulder.  “I’m sorry, Vanitas, but it’s the only way.”

“Don’t tell me you’re _sorry!”_ I snapped back, flinging my ping-pong paddle at her.  She dodged narrowly, shooting me another glare.

“What would you have me do, then?  Let the Castle fall to war and lawsuits?”  She relaxed again, looking at Vanilla.  “You know if that happens, we won’t be the only ones who suffer.”

…I knew she was right.  I may be selfish, but I couldn’t risk ending _Kingdom Hearts III_.  Forget all the other reasons it would be a terrible idea; every character in both castles would slap a bounty on my head.  I’d be lucky to survive the day.

And Vanilla... if I didn’t take her back, they’d just kill her too.  I _wouldn’t_ let that happen.

I wanted to scream in rage, but there was nothing I could do.  Still, I let out an incoherent yell anyway.  Vanilla jumped, loping towards me.  I couldn’t look at her.

“…Tell me where to take her,” I muttered with my head drooping low.

Aqua nodded sympathetically, not that it mattered.  I knew it wasn’t her fault, but I couldn’t help hating her right then.

“It’s a world called Berk.  But remember, Van—it’s property of DreamWorks, not Disney.  Be careful.”

_Being careful_ was the last thing I was worried about.  Nothing they could do to me could be worse than this.

I pulled a bucket of vanilla ice cream out of a dark corridor, making my dragon perk up.  She flicked her ears happily, snapping towards the bucket.

“Not yet, Nilla.”  I held it behind me, opening a different dark corridor with my other hand.  Then I quickly scaled her scaly side, throwing my legs over her back.  No way was I going to miss what might be my last chance to ride her.  “Good girl.”  I tossed the ice cream in front of the corridor, and she rushed forward after it, accidentally kicking it through.

“Good luck,” Aqua said as we disappeared through the darkness.

XXX

Thank the Void I’d jumped on Vanilla, because that corridor dropped us right at the edge of a cliff.

“Whoa!”  I shouted, watching the bucket of ice cream drop off in front of us.  After Vanilla shook off the disorientation of the corridor, she was diving down after it.  “Hey, Nilla, it’s just ice cream!  I can get—”

The wind whipped the words from my mouth; we were in a nosedive straight towards the ocean.

Heights didn’t scare me.  Falling didn’t either—I was a Kingdom Hearts character; gravity was more of a suggestion than a requirement.

But water?

…I wasn’t scared of that either.  Not at all.  It was just like cold, dense, wet darkness… darkness I couldn’t control… darkness that could suffocate and drown you—

I had a split second to wonder, then we crashed into the ocean.  The salty water flushed my eyes; why hadn’t I summoned my helmet?  Such an idiot…  Gah, it was _cold_ —and I couldn’t yell at Vanilla to swim up, stinging water was flooding my mouth—

It felt like hours, but a few seconds later, Vanilla broke the surface with me barely clinging to her back.  She swam for shore, gently rolled me off of her, and dropped the bucket of ice cream by my head.

“Yeah, because that’s _totally_ worth the salt-bath,” I muttered sarcastically, shoving the bucket away.  Vanilla moaned, sniffing me like I must be sick.  “Ugh, I’m _fine._ Sheesh, maybe Aqua was right to make me get rid of you.”

I regretted it immediately.  Vanilla didn’t understand my exact words, and she licked me roughly to warm me up.  She was a good minion, the _best_ minion.  A minion capable of being a friend.

“Sorry, Nilly,” I called her the affectionate nickname I didn’t dare say around anyone else in Castle Lampshade.  “I’m just grumpy ‘cause I don’t like baths.”

In response, she licked me across the face, spiking one side of my hair up again.

“ _Eww_ , ugh, now I’m going to need a _real_ bath…”  In the running water back at the castle, not that stupid salty ocean.  But there was no way I was going back now – not yet.

_“Hiccup!”_ A girl’s voice yelled from across the beach; footsteps jogged my way.  “I know you’ve got places you’d rather be, but there’s an urgent meeting at the Great Ha….”

She trailed off when I got to my feet, brushing dust off of my suit.

“…You’re not Hiccup.”  She took a step back, more surprised than scared.

I rolled my eyes.  “Gee, how’d you guess?”

The girl gave me a funny look, then glanced to Vanilla.  “…Toothless?”

Growling softly towards her, Vanilla’s teeth exposed themselves.

“Hey, don’t make fun of my dragon.”  I frowned.  “Her name’s Vanilla.  Who are you?”

“…Astrid Hofferson,” she replied hesitantly at first, but then straightened up, swinging her braid behind her shoulder.  “And who in Odin’s name are _you?”_

“Vanitas.  Not Van, not Vani, _Vanitas_ ,” I made myself clear.

“Okay, ‘Vanitas’—wait, _her?”_ Astrid’s eyes widened at Vanilla, who put a wing around me to draw me closer.

“Yeah, _her.”_ I crossed my arms.  “What, do you think just ‘cause she’s a dragon she has to be an ‘it’?”  This girl was already getting on my nerves.  Not that that was surprising; _everyone_ got on my nerves.

She shook her head, brushing my question off.  “Come with me.”

“Uh, _I’m_ the awesome one with the awesome dragon, what makes you think you can—!”

_Man,_ that annoying girl could punch.  I doubled over, clutching my stomach, and she had the nerve to smirk.  Vanilla snarled, flaring her wings wide.  Bet Astrid didn’t think about _that._

I laughed as she ran down the beach, back to shack-covered area she’d come from.  “Not so tough now, are—hey!  Vanilla, wait up!”

Vanilla took off running down the beach, right on Astrid’s tail.  If she’d had a tail, anyway.

“Idiot…”  I chased after them, wondering what DreamWorks would do to me if I shot Dark Firaga at her from behind.  Uggghhh, stupid inter-company politics.  I wondered if Vanilla somehow knew about them, because she hadn’t shot any awesome blue fire yet.  But she was _from_ this world, so that wouldn’t matter, right?

Her wings and tail lashed, throwing wood beams out of the huts we raced between.  Man, how was Astrid still ahead of us?  And where _was_ everyone?  Except for the three of us, the island seemed deserted.

“This is getting boring,” I muttered under my breath, trying not to pant.  These could be my last moments with Vanilla; why were we using them chasing some stupid girl?

Suddenly Vanilla stopped.  My legs didn’t.  I crashed forward into her tail, which threw me backwards and to the ground.

“Vanilla!  What the—”  Oh.  Astrid had finally done something smart – she’d run into a huge building.  Big as it was, the door wasn’t big enough to fit Vanilla’s outspread wings.  She struggled and squirmed, roaring loud enough to shake the building’s walls.  “Hey!  Hey, Nilly, shut up!”  Leaping over her tail, I climbed onto her back and tried to shove her wings down.  “Just get—your—wings—”

Even faster than she’d stopped the first time, she collapsed.  I lost my balance, rolling off onto the ground.  “Nilla!  Curaga!”  I cast the spell, but the bright green light didn’t do anything.  What in the Void was going on!?

“Good Night Fury, good girl~” A man’s soft voice cooed from in front of Vanilla, on the other side of the door.

“Who do you think you are, talking to my dragon like that!?”  I climbed on Vanilla’s back again, sliding down her neck and leaning back to avoid whacking my head on the doorframe.  I landed on my feet inside the giant room, right in front of the loser trying to manipulate my dragon.

He stepped back, but he didn’t look scared.  Not scared enough, anyway.  He didn’t look too tough, but he was taller than me – and growling behind him was a different dragon that could’ve been Vanilla’s replica.  Did Even get to this world before me?

“You – another human with a – Toothless isn’t the only—?”  The man stuttered.  Hah, maybe he _was_ scared.

Astrid shooed out the mass of people who were gathered in the giant room.  This must be the “Great Hall” she’d mentioned.  After assuring them all that I wasn’t there to kill them, she hung in the back by the Vanilla-replica, leaning against the dragon with her arms crossed smugly.  “You spent the last six months of your free time looking for Night Furies, but I never thought one would actually come looking for you.”

“We didn’t,” I snapped back, “ _you_ just had the nerve to punch me, and—” That was why.  To make us follow her here.  Where this weird new guy had another Vanilla waiting for us, to challenge us—

“She punched you?”  He looked surprised for a moment, staring towards the still-grinning Astrid, but then he just sighed. “Sorry about that.”

“I’m not,” Astrid chimed in.  The guy didn’t bother arguing; he quickly went back to scratching Vanilla under her chin.  So _that’s_ why she fell over, but that’s not fair, _I_ scratch her there.

“Forget it,” I grumbled.  I wanted to argue, but Vanilla looked so happy... for the first time I wondered if maybe she really did belong here.  I crouched down and rubbed the scales of her back.  She really was my best friend… after all the effort Aqua put in to make me make friends, and she was really going to make me get rid of Vanilla?  Ugh, I guess it wasn’t really her fault, but I was still _mad._ Mad enough that a Bruiser should have tried to escape, but it didn’t.  Probably the stupid DreamWorks world screwing up my magic.

“This is crazy!”  The man said, running both hands through his hair.  “Where did you find her?  Are there more Night Furies there?  Wait – who even are you?”

“Vanitas,” I mumbled.  I didn’t have the energy left to make sure he got it right.  Vanilla had turned away from him and was nuzzling me, her eyes wide.  Sometimes she was like my Unversed; she could tell when something was wrong.

“Well, it’s good to meet you, Vanitas.  My name’s Hiccup.”  The strange man held out a hand, which I stared at blankly.  He didn’t honestly expect me to shake it, did he?  Eventually he got the hint and coughed into it instead.  “Well, uh… what are you doing here?”

“It’s kind of a long story,” I muttered, hands clenching into fists.  “They say I have to leave my dragon here.”

“Wait – someone’s trying to make you get rid of your dragon?”  Surprisingly, the weird Hiccup guy looked about as offended as I felt.  “No one should have to be separated from their dragon.  Right, Toothless?”

The Vanilla-clone bounded over to lick Hiccup across the face, just like Vanilla always tried to lick me.  I couldn’t help laughing just a little.  Dragon-licks were way funnier when they happened to someone else.

“That’s what I’m saying, but they made it sound like I don’t have a choice,” I grumbled.

“Let’s sit down and talk,” he suggested after wiping himself off as best he could.  “I know a thing or two about persuading people.  I’m sure we can get whoever it is to let you keep… Vanilla, was it?”

I nodded, clinging to her side.  If this guy could help me keep her… well, then maybe he wasn’t as much of an idiot as he looked.  I wasn’t sure what some spindly-looking man could do against the forces of DreamWorks and Disney, but this _was_ a DreamWorks world.  Having an ally on this side could be useful.  

I followed him to a giant table that looked like it could’ve seated the whole Castle Lampshade crew.  Hiccup mumbled something to his dragon, who leapt over to play with Vanilla the second we had our backs turned.

“So, what’s the problem?  Dragon trappers?  Stubborn chieftain?  Girlfriend worried you spend more time with your dragon than you do with her?”

“I heard that,” Astrid called from across the room, where she had followed the two dragons.  Hiccup just chuckled.

“Worse,” I replied glumly.  I could’ve beaten up trappers, chieftains, or girlfriends.  “ _Disney inspectors_.”

Hiccup sputtered.  If he’d been drinking anything, he would’ve spat it at me.  “D- _Disney?_ You’re from _Disney?”_

“Sure doesn’t look like it,” Astrid said, eyeing me up and down as she walked back toward us.  “He’s certainly not princess material.”

I glared at her, before realizing I should probably take that as a compliment.  “I’m half Square Enix, too.”

She shrugged, blonde braid swinging.  “Haven’t heard of them.  Only ever heard of Disney because Merida and Rapunzel are always showing up in our fandom.”

“Huh?  Why?”

Hiccup waved a hand dismissively. “The Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons meta-fandom.  It gets pretty complicated.  Regardless, I _have_ dealt with Disney.  As the new chief, I’ve had the responsibility of communicating with the DreamWorks patrols.  They’ve mentioned that they think Disney might be trying to stick its nose in and wanted me to keep an eye out.”

I cursed, and for once _it actually came out_.  No Disney censors here.  Hiccup and Astrid did give me a weird look, though.  Maybe they had different curse words on this world?  Whatever, that wasn’t important.  “You’re going to turn me in, aren’t you?”

“What? No,” Hiccup assured me.  “Your dragon clearly loves you.  Winning a dragon’s heart is hardly a crime.”

“Good.”  I sighed.  If only Aqua and the Disney Inspectors saw it that way… Well, at least Hiccup wasn’t going to turn me in.  The last thing I needed was to get kidnapped off to some other company’s headquarters.  Then I’d have _no_ chance of being in KHIII.  “So, can you help me or not?”

He winced, sharing a look with Astrid, who just shrugged as if to say, _you’re the chieftain, not me._ I wasn’t sure what a chieftain was exactly, but it sounded important.

“...I don’t know,” he admitted.  “I’ll have to do some research.  If you were from any other company, you would be small enough for DreamWorks to overlook.  But Disney… they’ve been after a way to hit them for years.”

So everyone was just out to get me.  Great.  Then I thought of what he’d said earlier.  “Wait, what about that Brave Tangled Dragons crap?  You said Disney characters were here for that.  Why can _they_ party in your world and I can’t have Vanilla in mine?”

“Kid’s got a point.” Astrid nodded, leaning against the table.

Hiccup rubbed his chin thoughtfully.  “You might be onto something there.  That _was_ a case where both fandoms came to an agreement without getting the companies too involved.  Just had to fill out a lot of paperwork, but it all worked out.  I think that was only because both fandoms contributed equally, though.  No matter how much paperwork I fill out, DreamWorks won’t buy it if they think Disney’s trying to steal from them.”

I tried to puzzle out what he meant.  “Both fandoms give something.  So, what, if I give DreamWorks something of ours, I can keep Vanilla?”

“I’m not sure it’s that easy--” He protested, but I was already searching my heart, trying to pull out an emotion that would make a decent Unversed.  This stupid stupid DreamWorks world was making that harder than it should be.  There was Anger, but no Bruisers; Annoyance, but no Floods.  What was _wrong_ with this place?

“Uh, are you sick?”  Astrid asked.  I probably looked like an idiot, with my fists and eyes clenched shut, but I wasn’t going to give up yet.  Unversed were the only things I had to give.  If I could trade looking stupid for Vanilla, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Finally, I was able to grab hold of some Determination, an unusual feeling for an Unversed.  Maybe that’s why it worked here, I don’t know.  It felt weird pulling it to the surface.  Somehow the darkness was rougher coming out of my skin, like it was trying to cling to me while I pushed it out.

Hiccup made a noise like choking and screaming at the same time.  Astrid just gasped.  Right, they’d never seen me do this before.  It was nice to get a reaction; everyone back at Castle Lampshade was desensitized by now.

Then again, the Lampshaders had never seen me make a _dragon_ Unversed .   _I’d_ never seen me make a dragon Unversed .  After I got over the surprise, I grinned.  The new Unversed stretched its wings as it wisped out of my outstretched palms.  Bright emerald green and taller than a Bruiser, with four thick legs and broad wings, it was basically the most awesome thing ever.  Besides my real dragon, of course.

“What has Disney been _feeding_ you people?”  Hiccup’s eyes were wide, but I couldn’t tell if he was scared or impressed.  Hopefully both.

“Ice cream, mostly.”  I shrugged and patted the new Unversed, whose neck twitched back and forth as it scanned the room.  It needed a cool name.  Maybe “Flame Fanger,” after the sharp tusks pointing down from its top jaw.  “Here.  You can keep this guy, and I’ll keep Vanilla, and we can all go home and never have to see each other again.”

“Vanitas, I- ack!”  The Unversed sniffed at Hiccup, then blew a tiny burst of Fire, which he barely ducked.  It ended up hitting his dragon - Toothless - on the side of the head.  The black dragon crouched and snarled loud enough to make Vanilla jump back.  “Whoa, Toothless, it’s okay!  Calm down, buddy!”

While he ran to calm his dragon, Astrid decked me across the face.

“Ow - what the heck!?”  How many times was this crazy lady going to punch me today!?

“ _That’s_ for nearly toasting my boyfriend.”  I had a feeling she was going to say something else after that, but she never did.  Instead she warily backed away from my Unversed, but stayed in range so she could still attack me if I made a break for it.

I rubbed my jaw and practiced a few more curses while I could still say them.  Might as well make _something_ good out of visiting this Void-forsaken world.

Hiccup returned, both Night Furies trailing his heels like curious puppies.  “Okay, Vanitas, I think you’ve got a little more explaining to do.”

I shrugged.  “I make Unversed.  They’re like monsters made out of my emotions.  You keep this one, I keep Vanilla.  The end.”  It really wasn’t complicated.

“I don’t know that anyone _wants_ this, uh, Unversed.”  Hiccup eyed it suspiciously, but it doing a perfectly good job of behaving itself.  Vanilla, used to my minions, had already started play-wrestling with it.

“Why not?”  I asked with a glare.

Astrid rolled her eyes.  “Oh, I don’t know, because it’s a _monster_ you just poofed out of nowhere?  Besides, what would we even do with it?”

“Ride it, let the dragons play with it, make it do the chores you don’t want to do yourself, I don’t really care.  Can I go now?”

“Well…”  Hiccup sighed.  “Alright.  We’ll keep your Unversed, just so you can keep Vanilla.  If I write up a contract of exchange, DreamWorks shouldn’t be able to take her away without coming to me first.  And trust me, they don’t like doing that.”  He smiled, and I wondered what kind of tricks he had up his sleeve.   Maybe the characters had more say in the company in DreamWorks than they did in Disney.  “Just keep her out of canon and I think everything will be fine.”

“Wha- really?”  I beamed.  “You mean my plan could actually work?  I can keep Vanilla?”

Hiccup laughed.  “Never let it be said that Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third tried to separate a man from his dragon.”

“Yes!”  I fist-pumped quickly before running over to glomp Vanilla.  Yes, I said glomp.  I was so happy I didn’t even care.  She rolled away from the dragon Unversed to flop on top of me and lick the side of my head so my hair stood up in one giant spike.  Even that couldn’t get rid of my good mood.  If I could’ve made Unversed out of happiness, I would have.  

“You here that, Nilly?  We get to go home!  You get to tear up alllll the lamps you want!”  Her ear flaps perked up when she recognized the word “lamp.”

“You’ll still have to tell me how you found her.  I’ve been looking for more Night Furies; I think Toothless could use the company.”  Hiccup smiled, and his dragon nuzzled the side of his head.  It looked more like a headbutt, really.

“I don’t know, he looks fine with just you.”  Just like Vanilla only needed me.  That didn’t stop the two dragons from locking eyes and chortling to each other happily.  Fine, they could be friends.  Long as Hiccup didn’t get any ideas about keeping her.

“I don’t think anyone could separate those two,” Astrid said with a slight smile, then ducked when the Unversed flew over to sniff her.  “Okay, if you’re going to leave this thing here though, you better tell us how to take care of it.”

I could do better than that.  I scrambled out from under Vanilla, then took Hiccup’s hand in mine.  At first he tried to shake me off, but then he felt it - the magic passing from hand to hand.

“Uh, what did you just do?”

“I passed the Unversed’s bond to you.  It’ll do what you tell it to now.”  Sure enough, it trotted over to him, its red eyes set in a happy expression.  “Just be sure to give it a good name for me, okay?”

“...Alright.”  He rubbed his hand as if I’d poisoned it, but it didn’t last long.  He was too curious about the Unversed to be scared.  He looked like he was about ready to start spewing questions, so I figured it was time to leave.  

Only… how often would I get to visit a DreamWorks world?  How often would Vanilla get to play with other dragons?  Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to stick around for a little while.

“So what do I need to feed it?  Is it a girl or a boy?  What do you think about the name ‘Green Death’?”  What does it like to…”

Okay, maybe the flood of questions would hurt a little.  But I grinned and answered them anyway.  After all, I’d do a lot worse to keep Vanilla with me.

XXX

“Vanitas!”  Aqua yelled at me when she found me in the Lamp Garden, tossing a large crystal of munny for Vanilla to chase.  “What do you think you’re doing?  I told you Vanilla can’t stay here!”

“Yeah she can.”  I tried to smirk, but I was still so happy that it came out as a grin.  “I talked to this guy named Hiccup.  We made a deal.”

Her hands were on her hips; she was still in full-fledged Mom Mode.  “And what exactly was this ‘deal’?”

I pulled a crumpled paper out of my belt.  “Here.  Read it.”  I didn’t actually know what it said; I’d just signed it, but Hiccup had made it sound simple enough.

Her expression faded from frustration to confusion.  “You convinced the _leader_ of Berk to let you keep their copyrighted property?”

“Hey, Vanilla’s not property.”

“That’s not what I… oh, nevermind.”  She finally smiled.  “I don’t know how you did it, but I have to say, I’m glad.  Vanilla’s been good for you.”

“[BLEEP] yeah she has.”  The Disney censor chopped the first word out of my sentence.  Ugh.  Maybe I should’ve just stayed in Berk a little longer.

Aqua raised an eyebrow, but eventually chose to chuckle and leave me alone with my dragon.  I waved bye and went back to throwing shiny objects for Vanilla to chase.

Yeah, the censors might be stupid, and Disney might make things hard on me, but this was still home.  I had Aqua, Vanilla, and all the lamps I could ever need.

What more could I want?

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  I didn’t realize that I’d put in that random detail about Vanitas being scared of water.  I thought the first time I’d used that was in CaS, but I actually had this drafted long before that.  I guess it was just part of my subconscious headcanon.
> 
> I don’t think this was my greatest chapter by any means, but it was fun to play with the randomness of DMN again.


	10. Sword

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY GUYS I’M BACK LOL  
> Well, kind of. I’ve had this prompt buried in a notebook for a while and I finally decided to type it up. (Because when I’m not writing, I’m still writing… *sweatdrop*) When I say “for a while,” I mean, like, three years. This is older than the HTTYD crossover in the previous chapter. Surprisingly, I still think it’s actually decent. Possibly unfortunately to some of you, it’s also a crossover, this time with the Reckoners (Steelheart) series. I don’t think you necessarily need to have read it to understand what’s going on though.  
> Takes place at some point during the second book, Firefight.

Vanitas cried out in physical pain, hissing and flinching away from the blinding light.  His mask did nothing to filter out the brightness; even his eyelids were little more use than tissue paper.  The stark contrast from his long trek through the dark corridors only made it more unbearable.  

“Xehanort,” he muttered through a grimace, “if you knew about this stupid world, I’m gonna-”

He’d been stumbling, trying to find some shade, any relief from the ubiquitous light.  Well, he’d found something - the edge of a cliff.

And he’d stumbled right over it.

Cursing, he opened a vertical corridor, hoping to land himself… well, back on land.  Luckily, the dark corridors seemed to have some intelligence of their own; if he told it he wanted a solid surface to land on, it would seek the closest safe landing place.

_ Safe  _ and  _ away from the light,  _ he clarified.  

The dark corridor spat him out only a foot from the ground.  Unfortunately, he’d still had quite a bit of of momentum from falling, and his helmet hit concrete with a hard  _ crack.   _ His head throbbed; his vision doubled.  In spite of that, he could clearly make out the spiderweb fracture blooming across his mask.

He muttered a string of curses, making his mask melt away into nothingness for now.  At least the light wasn’t blinding here, and his vision slowly began to focus again as he shoved himself to his feet.

“What in Kingdom Hearts…?”  He squinted as he spun, taking in the view of this new world.  New Babylon, Xehanort’s world list had called it.  Not that he’d ever heard of an Old Babylon.

Vanitas had seen a lot of weird worlds in his missions to spread Unversed, but this one took the metaphorical cake.  As far as he could tell, he stood on the roof of a ridiculously tall building, in the middle of an ocean of more ridiculously tall buildings - literally.  Water lapped at the skyscrapers’ walls, drowning any doors and obscuring exactly how deep the towers stretched down.  The only clue he had to estimate by was the radioactive glow of… whatever it was lighting up the insides of the buildings.  He squinted at the windows of a skyscraper adjacent to his.  Some freaky kind of fruit?

It wasn’t the only weird thing that glowed; rainbow paint seemed to decorate the roof and walls of all the surrounding buildings, making the night come alive.

So if it was night, what had that blinding light been…?

It only took a swivel of his head to find out.  A couple buildings away, the roof of a taller skyscraper was a bright ball of light, like a miniature sun.  He didn’t stare at it long enough to determine exactly what it was, or why it might be there.  He preferred to  _ not  _ have his retinas set on fire again, thank you very much.

Besides, it wasn’t important.  He was just here to spread Unversed, cause some chaos, attract the idiots to come save some helpless civilians…

He frowned.  Where  _ were  _ the helpless civilians?  Sure, it was night, but Xehanort’s notes - the few sporadic bits of advice the old geezer bothered to give him - said that people in this world were nocturnal.  

“Maybe they hate that stupid light as much as I do,” he thought aloud.  If that were the case, maybe this world was right up his alley.  Not that that would stop him from terrorizing it with Unversed, of course.

He scanned the horizons, hoping to spot some innocent bystanders, when he saw one reason why they might’ve been absent: there was no way to move between these rooftops.  Farther away, the buildings were linked by swaying rope bridges.  This one and others nearby were like little islands.

Lucky for him, he didn’t need bridges.  He opened a corridor to head for the connected buildings - but then he spotted something.  Some _ one.   _ Looked like a girl, crouched alone - 

And pointing a gun straight at him.

He quickly ducked into the corridor.  He didn’t have much experience with guns, other than what he knew from that idiot Braig.  Needless to say, he didn’t have a high opinion of them.  They were a regular human’s pitiful excuse for magic or a keyblade.  Still, that didn’t mean it would feel great to get shot by one.

He changed the corridor’s course, materializing directly behind the girl.  A decent display of his supernatural abilities would make her think twice about who she pointed a gun at.

As she spun around, he summoned his keyblade and took full advantage of his revealed face, twisting his lips into a malicious grin.  He expected her to scream, maybe throw her gun over the side of the building in panic, realize she was nothing compared to this specter of darkness.

She didn’t even flinch.  And she shot him point-blank in the shoulder.

Surprise, fury, and embarrassment burst from him in the form of Floods, Scrappers, and Bruisers as he flew backwards.  Unfortunately, that didn’t help the blood bursting from his wound.  Clenching his teeth, he dug out the monstrous chunk of metal, something Braig’s arrowguns never left behind.  He wouldn’t scream, he wouldn’t scream and give this idiot girl any satisfaction…!

“Curaga,” he managed to cast, restoring his health bar and bringing immediate relief to his pain.  Even his suit mended itself, tendrils of darkness enveloping the healed flesh.

The girl’s eyes widened.  In the time he’d spent healing himself, she’d already shot all his Unversed, and she only had a shallow scratch on her arm through her ripped jacket to show for it.

_ “Megan?  What’s going on?”   _ A voice crackled through some electronic device at her shoulder, which she tapped to silence.

Vanitas was still furious - she’d had the nerve to  _ shoot  _ him!  She was asking for a Boss Battle, the idiot.  No one did that except for Aqua.  And this girl didn’t even have a keyblade.  It was…

...A little impressive, actually.  He’d never before had a regular human fight back when he released his Unversed.

“You’re another High Epic looking to meet with Regalia, aren’t you?”  The girl - Megan, if he could trust the earlier voice - scowled.  It was only then that he inspected her closely.  Calling her a girl was a little misleading - up close, he could tell she was probably a year or two older than Aqua, with a similar figure.  Her blonde ponytail and buttoned jacket were soaked; had she been swimming in that dark water?

His own scowl matched hers.  He  _ was  _ pretty epic, but he didn’t know anything about a Regalia.  Maybe if Xehanort ever gave him some  _ useful  _ notes…

“Why should I?”  He asked, crossing his arms.  It was a little difficult while holding his keyblade, but he managed. “And why in darkness’ name did you  _ shoot  _ me?”

Megan raised an eyebrow.  “You don’t just sneak up on a girl holding a gun, slontze.  You’re not from around here, are you?”

He snorted.  Her attitude was getting annoying very quickly.  He wouldn’t admit that was because it too closely mirrored his own.  “What, you’ve seen a lot of people as awesome as me around here?”  He rolled his eyes.  Normally he was more subtle about his outworlder identity, but now he was determined to intimidate her… or maybe he wanted to impress her.

Neither was working.  She shot him his own signature  _ “idiot”  _ glance.  “In case you haven’t noticed, Babilar attracts a lot of High Epics.  Like that one you almost got fried by.”  She nodded in the direction of the bright light.  Wait, there’d been a  _ person  _ in there?  Who could apparently use magic… was that what the whole “High Epic” thing meant?  “That’s Obliteration, and he’s going to level the city any day now.  If you’re smart, you’ll get out of here.”

Ugh.  This wasn’t going the way he’d planned it at all.  At least she wasn’t shooting at him anymore, but that still didn’t explain why she didn’t seem the least bit afraid of him.

“Yeah, right.”  He snorted, rolling his eyes.  “You’re just trying to scare me off.  Well I’m staying right here.”  He smirked, twirling his keyblade.

“So you can do what, stand around and twirl your little sword?”  She kept giving him that same look.  Man, she was a tough nut to crack.

“It’s a  _ keyblade.   _ And at least I’m not standing around playing with a stupid gun,” he retorted.  “Why were you aiming that thing at me, anyway?”

She tapped the gun’s scope.  “I was observing.  I’m not enough of a slontze to shoot another High Epic I’ve never met.  Unless he shows up behind me, that is.”

_ What the heck is a slontze?   _ Some kind of insult, no doubt.  “What do you mean, another?  You’ve shot another guy with magic before?”

She looked at him like he was the biggest idiot - or slontze - in the entire Worlds.  Before she could insult him again, however, a figure came flying up over the skyscraper’s edge.

“Megan!”  He shouted, landing awkwardly on the elevated concrete and disengaging the jets of water blasting from his feet.  What kind of spell was  _ that?   _ Wateraga?  He’d never seen anything like it.  “Are you alright?  Where’s Knoxx?”

“I’m fine.  You don’t have to rush in like I’m a damsel in distress.”  He could've sworn her eye-roll was a little more affectionate that time.

“I know you’re not.  You’re like, a distressing damsel.  Y’know, if you were captured by a dragon, you’d totally make the  _ dragon  _ distressed and ride it to freedom.”

Megan blinked at the new guy, looking like she was either holding back a laugh or choking.  Then she coughed.  Probably choking, he guessed.  “...Anyway.  Knoxx flew off when this slontze showed up.”

“I’m not a slontze,” he muttered, feeling very much like taking Void Gear to the back of her skull.  Unfortunately, she’d made him too curious.  “Whatever a slontze is…”

The new guy looked him up and down, eyebrows raising, and finally addressed him.  “You must have some wicked powers to make up for wearing a costume like that.”

“Excuse me?”  Vanitas scowled.

“I mean, skintight suit?  Spiked black hair?  Shredded skirt?  It’s like you walked straight out of some old anime.”

“For once, that wasn’t an awful simile,” Megan mused, making the guy beam.

“Thanks!  Now, uh… why are you two standing around talking?”

Megan shrugged.  “He teleported behind me, I shot him, he self-healed and decided he wanted to chat.”

Void, these two were  _ weird.   _ The guy looked a little nervous around him, but Megan was still steelily calm.  Which didn’t make a lot of sense, considering the boy had magic and she didn’t.

A thought suddenly occurred to him: these two were probably older than Terra and Aqua.  People had magic on this world too.  And they’d seen his face unmasked.  What if they thought he was just some kid playing with magic, not a real threat?

The thought infuriated him, almost taking shape as a Buckle Bruiser, but the guy addressed him again.

“What’s your name, kid?”

That was all it took.

“I’m not a  _ kid!”   _ Vanitas snarled.  A trio of Buckle Bruisers rose up from dark tendrils at his feet.  A few stray Floods scampered out as well, wild with irritation.

“Whoa!”  The guy - Vanitas still didn’t know what to call him - leapt to the air, pulling up and shooting out water to keep himself aloft.  A buckle caught him in the leg, throwing off his balance.  “Remind me not to provoke Epics I don’t have notes on!”

Megan rolled her eyes, launching bullets through Vanitas’s Unversed.  Within seconds, their negativity was once again flowing back to him, only feeding his anger, and adding a nasty bit of pain on top of it.

“I thought improvising was your specialty, Knees.”  She shot the guy a smug grin. His eyes were wide.

“Those weren’t illusions, were they?  What kind of Epic  _ is  _ this kid?”

Vanitas forced his emotions down.  Unversed apparently wouldn’t help him there; wisps of darkness were all that were left of them.

“Not bad,” he grinned, taunting them.  “But I’m just getting started.”

He bared Void Gear over his head, then lunged at the girl.  Regardless of Knees’ magic, she was clearly the bigger threat.

At least, he thought that, right up until Knees sent him flying off the roof with a blast of water.

Vanitas floundered in midair, but couldn’t think quick enough to teleport back before he hit the water’s surface.

He didn’t know how to swim.  Brine flooded his lungs; darkness obscured his vision; salt burned his eyes.  Why did he have to break his helmet?  The mistake would be the death of him…

_ I can handle the keyblade brats just fine, but the first non-wielders I fight kick my sorry butt all the way to the Void…! _

Sinking through the wet darkness that payed no heed to his struggling limbs… for once,  _ he  _ felt like the idiot.  He couldn’t even get his bearings enough to open a corridor, or teleport, or anything.

_ I can’t die… not now, not by something as stupid as a little water… _

He struggled harder, attacking the water in a reckless attempt to reach the surface, but it was too late.  Even the glowing submerged graffiti began to darken.

With the last trail of bubbles leaving his mouth, Vanitas slipped into unconsciousness.

XXX

“Huh, who would’ve thought the streambeam could draw water out of  _ people?   _ It’s like a-”

“Forget the metaphors, Knees.  He’s waking up.”

“Oh, uh, should we tie him down?  I don’t want him coming at us with a sword again.”

“He can teleport, remember?  I thought you were the Epic nerd.”

“Sheesh, Megan, you  _ are  _ an Epic.  Have you ever heard of any Epic with the power to create real monsters?  ‘Cause I felt it.  Those were no illusion.”

“No one’s ever mentioned someone like that.  Or an Epic so young.  He probably doesn’t have a handle on his powers yet.”

“Well, you said he seemed chatty.  Maybe he’ll tell us something.”

Vanitas had been lying there, listening to the two kidnappers - or rescuers? - without opening his eyes.  It didn’t do much good.  They hadn’t mentioned why, after trying to kill him, they’d saved him from drowning.  Unless… they just wanted to talk to him?  It didn’t make any sense.  Outworlders were just supposed to run in fear, not fight back or  _ talk  _ with him.

His stinging eyes slowly creaked open.  The salt seemed to have cemented them shut, but he couldn’t rub them.  His suit would only irritate them more, so he just tried to blink the pain away.

The night sky didn’t sprawl above, like he’d expected.  They must have moved him indoors… but then what was with all the plants?  Jungle vines and exotic glowing fruit climbed the walls of what looked like a tiny cubicle.

Oh yeah.  This world was just messed up like that.

“You’re not going to try and kill us again, are you?”

Vanitas nearly screamed when Knees’ brown eyes suddenly appeared over him.  Void Gear sprung to his hand, but the brunette guy immediately snatched it.

“Whoa, take a look at this?  Who would make a sword with this much detail?”  He held it out for Megan to inspect; she brushed a hand over it, as if to make sure the keyblade wasn’t an illusion.

“Give it back, Knees,” Vanitas ordered darkly, regardless of the fact that he was lying on a half-rotted computer desk, in no position to order anything.

Megan blinked in surprise as Knees blushed bright red.  Then the girl burst into a laugh, only adding to his embarrassment.

“You just  _ had  _ to call me that in front of him,” he groaned.  “Why couldn’t I have a  _ cool  _ body part nickname, like Toes?”

“...Toes?”  She gave him a funny look.

“Yeah, like, I’m always on my toes?  Prepared to take on whatever Epic shows up?”

Megan shook her head with a light laugh.  “You are absolutely ridiculous.”

“Yeah,” Vanitas spoke up, startling them.  “Everyone knows fingers are a more impressive body part.  You can’t hold a keyblade without fingers.”

The two young adults stared.

“What?”  He shoved himself up into a sitting position, summoning Void Gear back from Knees in a purple flash.  “You still think toes are better?”

“No, you’ve got a point; I  _ do  _ need fingers to be an awesome shot…” Knees mused.

“Glad you’ve found someone to have those, uh,  _ deep  _ conversations with.”  Megan tried to bring them back on track.  “But we have more important issues.”

“Yeah.”  Knees sighed, plucking a glowing purple fruit that hung too close to his face. “Let’s get one thing straight, though: my name’s David.  Only she gets to call me Knees.”

“And I’m Firefight,” she interjected, voice still serious.  He noticed that her hand was still hovering over her giant gun.  “Only that slontze gets to call me Megan.”

Vanitas was glad she clarified.  He had a feeling she wouldn’t let it roll off so easily if he called her the wrong name.

“What about you?”  David asked.  “I get you don’t like being called ‘kid.’”

“I don’t.”  He Vanitas scowled, but didn’t release any Unversed this time.  “My name is Vanitas.”

“Vanitas?”  David repeated with a shrug.  “Interesting name.  Does it have to do with your powers?”

He swung his legs over the side of the vine-choked desk.  “It means ‘emptiness,’” he repeated what Xehanort had told him once, unsure why he was bothering to talk to David.  This was the guy who’d drowned him… but Vanitas had gone after his friend with a keyblade first.  And he had also apparently saved him from drowning…

“Okay…” David said slowly, tossing the fruit up and down.  “So, what kind of powers  _ do  _ you have?  Illusion?  Reality warping?”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow.  Maybe he hadn’t impressed Megan - Firefight - but David couldn’t hide his excitement. Vanitas’s lips curved into a small smirk.

“How does ‘creating monsters out of my emotions’ sound?”

Firefight scowled.  “It sounds completely impossible, even for an Epic.  There isn’t a classification even remotely like that.”

David snickered.  “Nerd.”  She rolled her eyes, but he kept talking.  “Somehow Regalia has strengthened Epics’ powers and given completely new ones.  I wouldn’t rule it out.”

“Maybe so, but he didn’t have a clue who Regalia is.”

He frowned a little at that.  “Well, maybe he came from across the ocean, or-”

“Could you stop talking about me like I’m not here?”  Vanitas snapped.  “If you don’t believe me, I can just show-”

_ “No!”   _ David and Firefight shouted simultaneously.  The purple fruit dropped to the ground.

“What, too scary for you?”  Vanitas taunted.  Maybe he’d done a better job than he’d thought.

“Not even close.”  Firefight snorted.  “But we’ve learned something important.  If an Epic doesn't use his or her powers for a long enough time-”

“-They stop acting like spoiled kids who didn’t get enough marshmallows in their Lucky Charms,” David finished with a grin, but she shot him a glare.  “What?”

“Nevermind.  I suppose I can’t get mad at you for talking about us like that if it’s true.”  She sighed, leaning against the wall.

“Wait… You’re saying you’re an Epic too?”  Vanitas frowned.  David had been the one using magic, not her.

She nodded.  “I’ve been trying to avoid using my powers.  So far it’s difficult, but it keeps me from feeling some of the emotions that make me a danger to others.”

That hit Vanitas like a ton of bricks.  “You’re saying you would give up  _ magic  _ just to what, be a better person?”  He scoffed, hopping down from the desk.  David took a step back.

“It’s bigger than that,” she insisted.  “It makes me feel better - more human.”

What was this girl saying?  If he gave up magic - gave up making Unversed - he could be normal?  Pfft, like he wanted to be  _ normal.   _ He was awesome; these people had called him Epic.  Why should he give that up?

“Then you’re an idiot human.  You’re just trying to make me weak.  Whatever this trick’s about, I’m not falling for it.”

Firefight turned away from him, shaking her head.  “See what I mean, Knees?  It’s not that easy.”

“He’s just a kid, Megan,” he whispered.  “He probably doesn’t even realize his powers are changing him.  We can’t let him become like the rest of them.  It’s just… it’s so  _ sad.   _ You should get it even more than I do.”

“I can hear you, you know.”  Vanitas crossed his arms, itching to let his irritation out as Unversed, but he’d rather not give Firefight any more bullet fodder.

She sighed, giving David an irritated look that said something like,  _ you make me do the stupidest things, slontze.   _ But she took a deep breath and put her hand on Vanitas’s shoulder.  He stiffened like he’d been shot with a chunk of Blizzaga.

“Listen to me, Vanitas.  I’ve gone through the same things you are.”  Her brown eyes bored into his, with a level of sincerity and intensity no one had ever shown him before.  “I was given powers I never asked for.  I was practically turned into a monster against my will.”

He’d been about to snap back, tell her that she couldn’t possibly know what he’d been through.  But shockingly, her description sounded accurate so far.  He’d never  _ asked  _ for his emotions to manifest as Unversed; he’d never asked Xehanort to rip him from Ventus’s heart and make him a monster.  So he let her keep talking.

“...I killed more people than I’d like to admit.  And I barely felt a shred of guilt.  It’s easy not to care about other people when you feel like a divinity, right?”

He found himself nodding.  He was better than Ventus, better than anyone.  He would forge the X-Blade and rule the worlds.  It was his destiny, his right.

“It wasn’t until recently that David and I realized it’s the powers  _ themselves  _ that change Epics.  I know it’s hard to keep yourself from using them; it’s not a permanent solution.  But tell me, Vanitas - has having powers ever really made you happier?”

It was that sentence that cut straight through his heart.  

_ Happy?  I don’t even know what that feels like.  And I don’t care, either. _

It was a lie.  He remembered happiness, barely.  It was an emotion that never surfaced in his Unversed… because he hadn’t felt it since he was a part of Ventus.

_ Void _ .  She was right, wasn’t she?  He didn’t have to answer out loud; his unmasked face couldn’t hide his realization.  Still, he didn’t have to admit it.

“I’m happy enough.”  He roughly shrugged her off.  Besides, he couldn’t just stop making Unversed.  Xehanort would kill him, for one thing.  For another, his emotions always found their way out sooner or later.  The more he held them back, the more violently they’d eventually burst out.  “Is that why you saved me?  So you could try to brainwash me?  Nice try, losers.”

“Vanitas, I can tell you’re as happy as a carrot trying to grow through solid steel.  Without even a little bit of fertilizer.”

He scowled at David.  “I’m not a vegetable.”

“Forget it, Knees.”  Firefight sighed.  “I told you your plan had about a point-one-percent chance of working.  Not everyone wants to be human.”

His stubbornness didn’t let up.  “Then what do we do?  Let him wreak havoc wherever he wants?  Let Regalia or some other High Epic get to him?  Throw him back in the ocean to drown?”

“That was a mistake,” Vanitas grumbled.  They wouldn’t really try that again, would they?  Not that they could.  He would be prepared this time; he would make a break for it if it came to that.  But if he could keep them talking, he could get a few more answers first.  “I answered your stupid question, now you do the same for me.  Are there really other people on this world with magic like mine?”

David stared in confusion.  “Well… I wouldn’t call it magic, but yeah.  Where have you been living, the bottom of the ocean?”

He ignored the question.  “Have any of them given up their powers?  Besides Firefight?”

David smiled at that.  “I know two others personally.  I can’t give out their names for their own safety, but trust me.  It works.”

“And you?”  Vanitas raised his eyebrows.  “If you’re not an Epic, what was that water magic you used?”

“Oh, you mean this?”  He lifted one foot, showing off the boot-like device he wore.  There was one on his other foot too, and both connected to an odd tank on his back.  “It’s a spyril.  Technology, not my power.”

Technology, right.  Some worlds had more of that than others.  Vanitas nodded.  “Okay, last question.  Why do you idiots care if I use my powers or not?  I’m not even from here.  I’m not your problem.”

This time, it was Firefight who answered, her voice low.  “Because no one else needs to become a murderer if we can help it.”

It didn’t change his mind.  He couldn’t stop making Unversed.  Forging the X-Blade was the only thing he had to look forward to in his miserable life.

But he couldn’t deny that these two might be onto something.  His Unversed were spawned of negativity; when they were destroyed, it brought back those negative emotions, plus his creations’ pain.  And that spawned more Unversed, on and on… a vicious cycle.  If he could really stop creating them…

No.  That was a hope he couldn’t afford to have.  More vain than his empty name.

“Well, thanks for the chat.”  He drawled it sarcastically, but was surprised to find that he meant it.  It wasn’t often he talked to anyone at all, much less someone who seemed to understand him.

He opened a dark corridor, and David’s eyes widened.  “After all that, you’re just going to leave?”

“What, did you want to invite me home for dinner?”  He scoffed.

“With teleportation like that, you can’t keep him at the Reckoner base,” Firefight pointed out quietly.  “He’s not the little brother you never had.  He’s a dangerous Epic.”

Vanitas smirked.  He  _ had  _ proved himself to her.  He mentally celebrated the victory.

“Exactly!  We can’t let him loose on the city!”  David, again, seemed to ignore his presence.

“You don’t exactly have a choice.”  Vanitas took a step closer to the corridor, in case they decided to go with Plan B.  Eliminate him.

“I wouldn’t say that.”  Firefight moved her hands into position on her giant gun.  Vanitas gulped.  Maybe he’d healed his shoulder with a Curaga, but if he took a bullet to the head, he doubted even Once More would save him.

_ For someone who wants to stop other guys from becoming murderers, she doesn’t have a lot of qualms about being one herself. _

“Tch, no need to get trigger happy.”  He rolled his eyes.  “Sounds like this place has enough problems.  If I”m going to cause chaos, it’ll be somewhere peaceful enough to appreciate it.”

With that, he disappeared through the corridor.

Later that day, he spread Unversed in Neverland, Deep Space, and Olympus Coliseum.  Still, he couldn’t help thinking that for all the chaos he caused, none of it was as fun as he pretended.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In clarification of being back or not, I’m not sure if I’m going to finish NaNo, I might start working on ASAS again this week. Stuff’s still kind of crazy, I’m still recovering from finishing reading Oathbringer, which was kind of an emotional gut-punch. In a good way. And a bad way. At the same time. Anyway, I sometimes have a hard time writing for a little bit after a finishing a good book, but hopefully I’ll be able to get back on track. I’m also really tempted to write some Stormlight Archive fanfiction now but I feel like I’d butcher everything. xD  
> Also was tempted to write a small spoof with Nightblood (from the book Warbreaker) in it for this prompt (Sword), but then I realized all it would consist of would be basically:
> 
> Nightblood: Hey! Want to destroy some evil?  
> Vanitas: I am evil, idiot.  
> Nightblood: …  
> …  
> …  
> …DESTROY EVIL!!!!111  
> Vanitas: *dies*
> 
> (Or something like that lol)  
> (Sorry everyone who hasn’t read Warbreaker)  
> (Or Steelheart)  
> (Why are you reading my lame fanfiction just go read that seriously xD)


End file.
